


The Garden

by halfbakedsnape, masaothedog



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: First Kiss, First Love, Gardens & Gardening, M/M, Marauders, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Summer Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-30
Updated: 2020-01-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:07:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22475320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/halfbakedsnape/pseuds/halfbakedsnape, https://archiveofourown.org/users/masaothedog/pseuds/masaothedog
Summary: Severus Snape gets a new start. Remus Lupin gets a new neighbor. A friendship grows between them like the garden they plant together in the summer of 1974... or is it something more?Illustration by masaothedog. Check out his art at corgi-nub.tumblr.com and his comic at dastardlylemondrops.thecomicseries.com
Relationships: Eileen Prince & Remus, Eileen Prince & Severus Snape, Remus Lupin & Severus Snape, Remus Lupin/Severus Snape
Comments: 34
Kudos: 176





	The Garden

At first glance, Remus Lupin didn't recognize him. To start, the dark hair he hid behind during the school year was pulled back with a cheerfully bright bandana. From across the garden Remus could see the pull of a threadbare blouse and jeans against the other boy’s thin frame as he swept the front stoop. His oversized school robes were nowhere to be seen. What changed about him the most wasn’t his clothes or his hair, however; it was the peaceful expression on his face--as warm and mellow as the late afternoon sun. He almost couldn’t believe that the person before him was-- “Snape?”

The teen jumped, and all the tension Remus was used to seeing in his scrawny little body was back in an instant. Snape turned and stared across the garden at him, expression unreadable.

“Hullo there,” Remus said. “Fancy seeing you outside of school.” The sunshine suddenly felt too hot on his cheeks as Snape continued to stare at him.

  
“I live right over there,” Remus continued awkwardly, gesturing towards his house. “So I suppose we’re neighbors.”

  
“I guess so,” Snape said back, so softly that Remus almost didn’t hear him. Then he turned on the heel of his bare foot and went inside the house without another word, leaving Remus dumbfounded. Severus Snape of all people, living next door to him? He didn’t know what to make of it.

  
It wasn't until a few days had passed that Remus got the opportunity to see Snape again. A full moon had come and gone, and a new scar had made its home on his upper left arm. He was pulling weeds in the garden, sweat sticking to his brow, when the Slytherin stepped outside carrying a wicker basket.

  
The grass on Snape’s side of the fence was sparse and yellowed--so different from the lush lawns and neat little vegetable gardens of the other row houses. The grass crunched under Snape’s bare feet as he picked his way across the garden, this time in a baggy gray T-shirt and black running shorts, along with the same red bandana. Smooth pale skin flashed before Remus’s eyes as Snape stood directly across the fence from him and knelt down.

  
“Hullo,” Remus said across the fence.

  
Snape didn’t answer. He just fiddled with the contents of the basket.

  
“What’ve you got in there?”

Remus stopped his weeding to watch as the other teenager lifted a few bottles of varying sizes out of the basket and placed them on the ground carefully, followed by a variety of seed packets.

  
“Oh wow, are you trying to plant something?” Remus asked, interest piqued. “I’ve never seen it green over there... The other tenants never even tried.”

  
He was surprised when Snape actually answered quietly. “It seemed to me that the soil here was good, so... I thought I could try to grow things.”

“Have you ever had a garden before?” Remus hadn’t ever recalled seeing Snape hanging around the green houses at Hogwarts.

“No, I haven’t,” Snape said, his voice slightly defensive.

“That’s all right.” Remus tried to make sure Snape knows he wasn’t being attacked. This wasn’t like school. “What do you want to grow?”

  
“Vegetables for me and my mam for one. Trying to grow food so we don’t spend so much on groceries, so we can afford the rent around here.”

  
Remus made a knowing sound. “They keep raising it every year.”

  
“Landlords are leeches.” Snape stabbed a spade into the soil for emphasis. When Remus nodded in emphatic agreement, the Slytherin looked up at him, dark eyes curious.

  
“How long have you lived here?”

  
“Just about my whole life, with my mum and dad. Is it.. just you and your uh, mam?”

  
“Yeah. My dad isn’t around anymore.”

  
“Oh.” Remus was concerned by the way Snape‘s face became pinched and sad when he mentioned his father. He could sense there was a story there, but he didn’t ask. “Well, that’s all right… what else do you want to grow?”

  
“Some potions ingredients. Mugwort, aconite, mint...and some flowers.” Snape flushed slightly when he mentioned the latter.

  
From the basket, Snape pulled out a few gardening pamphlets and a delicate looking wand. What interested Remus the most about it was the intricate carvings in the light wood of the handle. The symbols weren’t familiar to him, and they all looked as if they had been carved by hand.

“I thought we weren’t allowed to use our wands over the summer.”

“It’s my mam’s…”

Remus’s eyebrows shot up. He’d never thought of using another wizard's wand to get around the law.

  
“Well. I won’t tell the ministry if you won’t.”

  
“Deal.” Snape was actually smiling now. A small shy smile. Remus couldn’t help but smile back.

For a while, they worked side by side, separated by only the fence. Remus tugged at weeds while Snape started stabbing the ground with a gardening fork, loosening up the soil. He dropped a few drops of the contents from what appeared to be a perfume bottle into each little mound. As the sun reached its pinnacle in the sky, Remus paused to stretch his stiff back, t-shirt rising with his stretch. When he turned, Snape was looking at him, a little flushed. Probably from exposure to the sun, Remus thought.

  
“How’s it going over there?”

  
When Remus looked, he noticed that the dry grass and bushes on Snape’s side of the fence had shriveled and were all but dead. “Woah.”  
Snape didn’t look concerned.

  
“It’s the potion taking its course.”

  
“I’ve never seen a potion work like that before.”

  
“That’s because I designed it myself,” Snape said, shy smile returning. He lifted up the little perfume bottle and Remus saw that the original label had been replaced with some parchment. He recognized the delicate cursive from Snape’s essays. Not that he spent a lot of time looking at Snape’s notes or anything... “It should also act as a fertilizer for the new seeds.”

  
“That’s amazing.”

  
Snape’s small smile widened.

  
“Thank you.”

  
Snape turned back to the soil and began trying to pull up a small bush. He struggled with it, teeth gritted, breathing harsh. Before Remus knew what he was doing, he dropped his trowel and started scaling the fence.

  
“What the--” Snape’s dark eyes were huge.

  
“It looked like you needed a little help over there,” Remus said, balancing precariously on top of the fence. He lept off to the other side and felt the ache of his muscles as he did. Ouch. it might’ve been too soon after the full moon to pull a stunt like that. Snape looked startled momentarily but shifted over to give Remus access to the wilting bush. Together they pulled it up by its roots.

  
“Thank you,” Snape said breathlessly, and looking sincerely grateful.

  
“Of course,” Remus said, smiling at him. “I like working with plants.”

  
“Well then... while you’re already over here... Mind helping me with the rest of them?”

  
Remus couldn’t help but chuckle at that. Classic Slytherin cunning, that was.

  
“I’d be happy to.”

  
They spent all afternoon like that, side by side. At some point Snape’s mother emerged from the house, carrying a few bottles of lemonade. It was amazing how much she looked like her son: the same dark hair, the same bone structure. She was even wearing a red bandana in her hair like her son. She was wary at first when Snape introduced Remus, but she handed him a bottle anyway.

  
“It’s just Eileen,” she said when Remus tried to call her Mrs. Snape. She looked between Remus and her son in curiosity. Remus sipped at his fizzy drink and said nothing. He was sure she’d heard stories from Hogwarts about the Marauders. After she retreated back into the house, the two spent some time sitting on the grass and talking. The setting sun reflected in Snape’s dark eyes and warmed his complexion.

  
“Maybe we could spend time like this during school,” Remus said passively, after having drained the last of his lemonade. Next to him, Snape went tense and quiet.

  
“I think we’re done here.”

  
Remus could sense something was wrong as the Slytherin abruptly got up.

  
“We finished what needed doing,” Snape said.

  
“Is something wrong?” Remus asked.

The other teen didn’t say a word and continued packing up his things. He grabbed the empty bottles and began to walk back into the house.

“Snape, wait!” Remus called out, surprising even himself. Snape halted but didn’t turn around. “I… I’m… uh… I’m part of the herbology club at school. Maybe I could help with planning your garden.”

“Why would you want to do that?” Snape’s voice was very quiet again.

“Because I want to…” Remus decided to take the plunge. “Spend time with you?”

“You didn’t ever want to do that back at school.”

“I know… you’re right. But.. I’ve had a really nice time today. I know we’ve never taken the chance to get to know each other very well, but I’d like to. I want to be friends… Please Snape?”

The Slytherin finally turned and looked at him, face unreadable.

“You can call me Severus.”

Remus blinked. Then understanding dawned on him and a grin spread across his suntanned face. Severus wanted to be his friend, too.  
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….  
Summer was usually a lonely season for Remus.The students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry may not have been aware of his creature status, but the Ministry was. They’d pushed through enough regulations in the past decade that Remus didn’t really spend much time in Wizarding London at all. Because he was from a wizarding family of no notoriety, there were a lot of social circles he was barred from that the other Marauders mingled in with ease. On top of that, their families wouldn’t allow them to visit often with all the political tension currently afoot. Sirius and James sent him letters while they were cooped up in stuffy old manors, and Peter sent him candy… but it wasn’t the same.

  
The summer of ‘74 was different because he had Severus. As the weeks wore on, they continued to run into one another, which evolved into planned meetings. It was like they were planets being pulled into orbit. Eventually they began to spend every day together, and Remus was glad about it.

Severus didn’t mind spending the day in the garden or going on trips to the muggle library. He didn’t protest at spending hours browsing the shelves and didn’t interrupt Remus to tell him to stop talking about “boring school stuff”. Instead, the Slytherin would drift into the gardening section and return with volumes on perennials and herbs, taking dutiful notes in tiny cursive. When Severus allowed him to glance at the pages Remus saw more than just notes on potions ingredients. He saw detailed plans for a garden that looked nothing like his friend’s scrubby backyard. There were sketches of lush trees and flowers, and two silhouettes.

“Just daydreams,” Severus had said when he brushed off Remus’s question, not meeting his eyes.

Severus also didn’t mind that Remus was poor. He didn’t give Remus same kind of flack he’d receive in the Gryffindor common room about his shabby clothes and bagged lunches. Severus’ own clothes were obviously hand-me-downs if the floral patterns and feminine cuts were anything to go by.

Once Remus even invited Severus to a strike led by his father’s union to raise wages. While the Gryffindors would’ve balked at such a concept, when that Monday came the entirety of the small Snape family showed up, signs in hand. Remus went to bed that night with his voice hoarse from chanting and his cheeks sore from smiling. It was nice to not feel like an outsider, for once.

That was part of why Remus chose, after much deliberation, to let Severus in on his furry little secret. Dumbledore had made him swear not to tell anyone at Hogwarts… but they weren’t at Hogwarts, were they? They were at the public library.

“I wanted to talk to you about something.”

Severus had the tip of his pen in his mouth when Remus turned, dark brows furrowed as he stared into his floral patterned notebook.

“Mmm?”

“It’s… kind of important.” Remus’s mouth was dry.

“What is it?” Severus’s eyes were wide behind his black rimmed glasses. Yes, Snape wore reading glasses. Another thing Remus hadn’t noticed before they became friends. Just like he hadn’t known how Severus’s favorite musical group was Pink Floyd. Or how his eyes weren’t really black but a deep warm brown. Having those eyes on him, gazing intently, made Remus bite his lip. His palms suddenly became sweaty. Should they be talking about this here? Probably not.

Remus spied a convenient side door. Without another word, he pulled Severus out of his chair and toward the exit, the smaller boy struggling to keep up with him. They left the building and kept walking, crossing the front garden and going out into the back garden. It wasn’t until the cloying sweetness of a flowering honeysuckle surrounded them, the smell overwhelming them as they ducked into a bush, that Remus realized they were holding hands. It felt so right that he can’t help but squeeze Severus’s hand. Severus squeezed back.  
When Remus finally got the words out, stumbling and stilted, Severus didn’t say anything. For a few panicked seconds Remus was certain he’d lost his only friend he’d ever made outside of school... but then Severus stepped closer and wrapped his skinny arms around Remus in a tight embrace. Remus felt light headed.

“I’m glad you told me the truth. The scratches and scars… I’d wondered what they were from.” That was all he really needed to say. Remus tightened his arms around the smaller boy, certain Severus would hear the thundering of his own heart.

“Thank you...”

From that point on, the two were inseparable. There’d be days filled with confiding, consoling, and even a bit of crying on both of their parts. There’d be evenings where they’d stay out in the garden until the sun dipped beneath the hills, and together they’d look for constellations, leaning in close to look at a reference in an astronomy book from the library. There’d be nights where Eileen would invite them in for dinner and they’d all crowd together on the Snapes’ shabby couch, the scent of freshly baked bread and homemade stew wafting through the small house... They’d listen to Eileen read from Marx or Kropotkin until Severus nodded off, dainty little chin falling onto Remus’s shoulder. It was one such night when Remus sat and Eileen’s words washed over him like a warm blanket that he realized his feelings for Severus might be a little more than fraternal. He didn’t just like Severus… he liked Severus.

He didn’t start at this realization. He didn’t say a word. He just sat there, with his petite friend asleep under his arm, and his heart pacing like the day Severus had hugged him. Or the day Severus had lain splayed on the grass in those running shorts. Or the first day when Severus had smiled at his compliment--Oh god, he had it bad, didn’t he? How could he not have realized?

But as soon as the Earth-tilting moment of realization had come, it was gone, replaced by a comfortable warmth in his chest. He liked Severus. Remus’s hand began to move over Severus’s back, rubbing it gently. They stayed that way long enough for Eileen to lay a blanket over their slumped frames and head off to bed. It wasn’t until the shoulder blade under his hand shifted that Remus realized he had woken him. Severus was looking at him silently, hair a little mussed from having dozed off, eyes behind his glasses filled with a quiet wonder and… longing?

Time seemed to stand still as they stared into each others eyes, the house silent but for night sounds heard through the open window. Then Remus leaned in and pressed a kiss against Severus’ lips. It was brief but Remus was dizzy in the heat of it.

“I… Wha...” When Remus pulled back, Severus stared at him in shock.

“Oh no.” Remus felt the leaden weight of dread fill his stomach. He made a grave error. “I didn’t mean--I felt--it just seemed right--I’m sorry.”  
And with that, Remus fled. Fled from Severus, from the Snapes’ house, from his own embarrassment. He didn’t stop, scrambling over the back fence and to his back door. That was where he turned around to see Severus standing on his own back steps, staring back at him, his skin glowing a radiant silver in the moonlight. The hundred feet between their houses had never felt so distant. Severus opened his mouth to say something, but Remus closed the door. He’d ruined their friendship. He’d ruined everything.  
………………………………..………………………....…………………………………………………....  
August crept by without Severus around. Remus was too embarrassed to talk about what happened or to even face his friend again. Altering his routine wasn’t the hard part; he easily avoided the usual haunts the two had developed over the summer. The hard part was missing Severus. Remus kept the company of books, but without Severus peeking over his shoulder, offering quips and queries, the texts felt empty. Outside the Lupin’s garden became overgrown with Remus’s neglect. He couldn’t bear to spend time out there without his usual companion. He’d lost two things he cared about with his recklessness: Severus and gardening.

The warmth he had in his chest has been replaced by an ache--sometimes dull, sometimes so sharp that Remus would rub at like it was a muscle he had pulled as Moony. The full moon came in late August. After, a bandage was wound around his shoulder. With school fast approaching and no word from Severus (or should he return to calling him Snape now?), Remus was afraid the connection he had forged with Severus had just been a lightning strike of luck, and now his luck had run out.

Remus lay in his bed and stared at the ceiling as the late afternoon sun beamed through his window, thinking of Severus. Again. The open window of his room let in the warmth and humidity that accompanied the final days of August. For what was probably the thousandth time, he was replaying the events of July: the kiss, his flight, Severus looking at him beseechingly in the moonlight. How it might have all gone differently. He was just imagining what might have happened if he had stayed to hear what Severus had to stay when he heard a small sound-- “clink”!

He lifted his head to look and there on his windowsill was a small glass bottle with a note attached. It sparkled gold and blue in the light. Curiosity piqued, Remus left his bed. He recognized that little crystal vial. It was from Severus’s potioneering equipment. And he recognized the delicate handwriting on the piece of parchment attached. Remus held his breath as he read the note.

_Dear Remus- I wasn’t sure if I should reach out to you after what happened in July. I liked the kiss, I was just too shy to admit it. I thought maybe you regretted it and that’s why you’re avoiding me. Mam told me that was silly and you were probably just embarrassed. So I am going out on a limb to admit I like you, too, Remus. Really like you. Attached is a draught I brewed especially for you, because I know the full moon was recent. It should have some numbing and sleep inducing effects to help deal with the aches and pains that keep you awake after transforming. Please take it and get a good afternoon's rest, then meet me by the fence at sunset... if you want to and haven’t completely given up on me yet._  
_Yours,_  
_Severus_

Remus read and reread the note several times, realization washing over him as he did. Severus wasn’t upset by the kiss? Hope surged as he held the vial aloft, watching gold sparkle in deep azure. Potions like this didn’t get made without a lot of time and care. Severus must have really meant what he wrote, to do this kind of thing for him. As he headed back to bed to follow Severus’s instructions, Remus kept repeating one word over and over in his mind: Yours.

The sky was streaked with pink and gold when Remus stirred, groggy but without pain. His heart leapt as he remembered the note he had received that morning. A blurry world came into focus as Remus was reminded: Severus liked him! And he wanted to meet with him at sunset… that was now!

The pink was beginning to darken to red as Remus stepped out of the house. His shoulder was now unbandaged thanks to Severus’ brew. The potent properties healed his sprain and even knitted his small wound. He looked to the Snapes’ house for his friend, and that’s when his eyes were met with something he could only describe as magical.

Severus’s garden, which had previously been doing quite well for starting out as an overgrown briar patch with its neat little rows of vegetables and timid flowers, was now a paradise of foliage. It was obviously done by magic. Only magic could grow trees so green and leafy, sprout rose bushes and rare fruits in a day. It looked like the sketches he’d seen scattered throughout Severus’s journal. There, hiding under some generous foliage on the other side of the fence, was Severus, looking just as eager but anxious as Remus was sure he must look. Remus thought with shock that perhaps Severus felt just as intensely as he did.

When the two were face to face, once again separated by that wooden fence, they both spoke at the same time.

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry.”

They both laughed and blushed. Remus awkwardly scratched the back of his neck.

“I was worried I had scared you off for good with that kiss,” Remus said honestly.

“That night.. I was going to tell you that wasn’t the case.” Severus said with an earnest expression. “Then I had worried you’d disliked it, and that’s why you didn’t talk to me anymore.” The Slytherin was in running shorts and a bandana again, and the setting sun once again cast him in a golden glow.

“I was just embarrassed”

“You had no need to be.” Severus looked around himself at his garden. He looked bashful.“You know, I imagined what our first kiss might be like.”

“Oh? What did you imagine?”

“I remembered when you hopped over the fence to help me garden… I thought of us out here. You, kissing me, over this fence. I wanted to get it right this time. No need for anyone to run off. So I tried to recreate how I imagined it.” He looked down shyly, at his own bare legs that shimmered with the beginnings of moonlight. Then he looked back up at Remus through his lashes, his eyes full of desperate hope. Remus had his breath taken away.

“Do you want... Do you want me to kiss you?” he asked. He stepped closer to the fence, leaning in. Severus stepped closer as well, going up on tiptoe. Remus could tell he was trembling. He might have been trembling too. He was just waiting for that moment when Severus would finally say the word--“Yes.”

Remus didn’t need to be told twice.


End file.
